Earthlings

The new Official link to the US Air cc that is out now doesn't seem to have the
Bonus Anniversary Miles written on the page, or am I not looking hard enough?

benzemalyonnais

That's because it doesn't have the 10k anniversary bonus.

Bloggers seem to have gotten their affiliate links and wish to manipulate some naive readers. Glad you did your research, and now will get that anni bonus.

Kay_nyc

I'm a naive reader.

I freaked out when I saw milevalue's post. Absolutely freaked out. I thought the original offer had been replaced. I actually read his post, clicked over to the best credit card offers sticky, found the original no-fee offer and reapplied. I figured I should get in another application before the link was removed. Then I applied for my folks. Then I finished the churn I had planned.

Then I went back to milevalue, read the rest of the comments, and figured out that it was just an advertorial. Duh. Great lesson for me.

In the last year and a half, I managed to rack up 140K miles with US Air without flying (grand slam, 2 cards, 1 anniversary bonus, 1 $750min spend offer) and I've started wondering why the bloggers haven't been writing about it more. It's easy, you can get a ton of miles to use on a great alliance, you can get yourself to Brazil for 35K miles in May and to Europe for 35K miles in the winter.... why haven't they been blogging about it?

Duh! That link hasn't been earning them commissions! I get it now! I finally finally figured out that the purpose of the travel blogs is to push credit cards that earn the blogger a nice referral. I kind of knew that, but I never connected the business model to a high level of bias in the content. There is no way that milevalue's push of the new, inferior offer is a result of "oversight" - he's obviously a brilliant, detail oriented guy.

It all finally clicked. Well, better late than never. My panic precipitated my churn, but I was going to do my churn on Christmas, so I just moved it up by 5 days.

Marathon Man

Yes, please don't tempt people to over post things on blogs, etc.

Look how MMS plastered us with how to use Vanilla reloads at Office Depot for Chase INK UR points and then BAM! OD closes the door on the cards! Think it's just a coincidence? Look how other bloggers and top tier FT threads then suggested using the AMEX HH to buy these cards at CVS and then BAM! Everybody gets a FR. I could go on, but the point is, deals should be shared, etc, but it's better to keep them in threads or PMs than on the front page news. Once they get BIG they die. Period.

Kay_nyc

It's not the "deal killing" that bothers me. It's advertising disguised as information. I'm usually pretty savvy about these things, but I feel like I've been had. I always knew about the credit card marketing, but I thought it was just one part of the business model. I just feel really dumb today, because it's taken me a year and a half to fully appreciate that all these blogs are simply a vehicle for credit card marketing and will peddle misinformation if its in their financial interests. I know that there are FCC disclosure laws and ethical norms for bloggers around disclosing advertising, and I don't think the blogs I've been following do enough to disclose.

I think the most popular blogs are an entry point for tons of impressionable newbies, and these guys will continue making money off gullible newcomers. I'm not sure to what extent they'll build a long-term audience. I actually got involved with flyer talk via MMS and the Points Guy, and I still glance at the blogs, but I've deleted them from my google reader feed. There's a limit to the number of credit card adds I can read, and they just keep on repeating the same thing over, and over, and over. Mommy Points just did another post on applying for the damn Ink Bold Card. They've been posting about that card for almost two years now! Another sad pattern is that a blogger will set something up as a hobby, and write about topics that a relevant to me. They have a job, I have a job, and they write about making travel hacking work within the confines of a normal life. Then they go pro, and the content becomes irrelevant to a "normal person" (Mommy Points is a prime example).

Ok, sorry about the rant. Moderators, feel free to move my rants to the I hate bloggers thread

(For the record, I don't hate all bloggers, I'm just finding it increasingly difficult to find original content that teaches me something.)

Marathon Man

Well I think the way it works is this:

a person who has a lot to say one day realizes, hey I should bog about this stuff (I have actually considered the option because I am always babbling on about pretty much every mile topic from how to get em to what to do if you don't but it's not currently for me).

Then the person figures if they blog, it will help people, but what can I do to actually make something from this? Ads? Offers? They learn that only after a great number of hits are generated that the CC companies will even consider them for certain levels of whatever it is that gives them a kick back, so they make posts to their valued viewers... people they know and their friends. And they ask those friends to hit the site as much as possible. The site grows.

Then the CC companies begin to give kick backs.
Then the blogger starts to make a bit of money.
His or her SO says, hey you should make money at this stuff because you are already doing it anyway. So the blogger quits the day job (or gets canned anyway because of too much miles stuff online lol, or already has the propensity to work as an entrepreneur anyway so why not do more)
Then things change some...

Now the blog isnt just about cool helpful and organized posts that people in the know can read, instead it begins to own you. You have to keep doing it, keep content flowing, strive for that next level, get away from some of the very stuff that may have made you get where you are to begin with (for example if you started out trashing on say, mileage malls, and this is what got your core readers to like you, well, now these malls want you to help make them money so you have to stop doing that!)

So you may need to post about deals or CCs all the time--and even out some good deals just to get there! After all most reporters have to, by nature, report! It's what they do... it's all they do! (loosely quoted from the Terminator where John Connor said about the machine: It's what he does. IT'S ALL HE DOES!)

BUT, to circle back to THIS card, it is, as you've said, highly possible that Barclays is just not giving any $$$ to any blogger right now so that's why it's not posted! Which is also why, thankfully, its churn is not yet dead. So why would/should anyone blog about it if it is not going to bring you any lovin? Ah remember the days when said blogger did that anyway? Well now, like I said, it owns you, so you cant, you wont, and you probably shouldn't--not unless and until the business does come around and begin to pay you for your posting about them. The game changes and the new alliances are between bloggers and those who support this thinking. And the blogger is a hero to his or her SO because hey, you took me to Thailand on all those miles and points AND you earned money doing it! Is it right? Wrong? If you could would you? So there is no real reason to include the US Airways CC unless THEY pay up as well.

But hey, I could be off on some of this stuff.
MM

Kay_nyc

Marathon Man, I think that's a really plausible chain of events. I wonder how long some of these people can sustain their business model. I'm abandoning travel hacker blogs left and right because they're repetitive and cram my google reader with advertorials. I used to follow personal finance blogs, and I've abandoned all but one for the same reasons.

Anyway, I'm totally off topic, again, apologies for hijacking this thread with my rants.

Refocusing on the topic at hand: The old US DM card link still works, I've gotten 3 auto-approvals in the last 24 hours, and I'm still well on my way to collecting enough miles to take my mom to Venice.

Marathon Man

I hear ya! clogs not blogs, eh?

We can and should pm about this stuff any time

Anyway i was going to try for another us card and also try to get my wife to apply. She wanted to be more conservative on apps as of late though so its a hard sell lol

Anyway having just been to venice in july, i may have some little tips for you so do feel free to chat me up

mm

metoo

delete

Belllaaa

I have my first card since Marc 2012, didn't cancel. applied yesterday for second one and approved instantly.

mmaoao

Belllaaa, Did you apply using the 'Chairman' version and did you just leave the 'employee ID#' blank?Thanks for the reply in advance.

gloreglabert

People who have canceled this card -- were you able to transfer the credit line to another card, or would that have resulted in another pull? I have two of these (spaced 6 months), and the first one's anniversary is coming up. I'd like to cancel it and shift the line to the 2nd card, but not sure if Barclay's will do that.

michael_v

delete

Kay_nyc

I applied for 3 leaving the employee ID blank and was auto-approved yesterday.

Kay_nyc

I recall Barclays was a PITA about transferring the credit line (had to call a special department with limited hours). But when I churned it and got a second card, the analyst was able to split my credit limit between the two USDM cards from $18K on one to $9K on two.